Hutchinson dealing with fractured thumb

All-Pro left guard Steve Hutchinson revealed that he suffered a fractured right thumb early in the second quarter of Sunday's 17-13 victory against Washington.

Hutchinson said he hopes to play this Sunday against Buffalo with cast.

"That’s the plan," he said. "Now the issue becomes casting it up enough to protect it. We can cast it up, pad it up enough where it doesn’t hinder me from doing my job."

Hutchinson said he suffered the injury when he got his hand caught on a Redskins player on a running play. Hutchinson did not leave the game and played the second half with a splint on his thumb. An MRI on Monday showed he suffered a fracture and not a sprain.

"The rest of the 2 1/2 quarters was painful," he said. "But adrenaline and things like that keep you going. At the time, you don’t know it’s broken. You probably assume that. Unfortunately that’s part of the game, playing through the pain."

Hutchinson said he's had a number of sprained fingers throughout his career but never played with a broken thumb before.

"I have had plenty of sprains where you can just put a piece of molded plastic and tape it up and you still have the ability to use most of your hand," he said. "With a fracture it’s a little different story."

Hutchinson was scheduled to have a new cast put on Wednesday. He said he's curious to see how it affects his ability to use his hands while blocking defensive linemen.

"You do use your hands obviously on every play and you’re punching with it," he said. "When you don’t have the ability to grab and control a guy it makes it tougher. But we’ll have to see how that works."

Hutchinson said he probably won't do much work in practice the next few days but wants to test his hand later in the week to see how it responds.

"If I can’t do my job enough to where it hurts this football team then I’ll have to figure out a different avenue," he said. "But the plan right now is to cast it up and see if I can adapt enough."

Said coach Leslie Frazier: "He’s got to get out and see how he functions with the work that they’re going to do with his thumb. He’s obviously a vital part of our success on the offensive line, and he’s a tough guy. But we’ll see how he does over the course of the next few days."

If Hutchinson is out, rookie Chris DeGeare likely would start at left guard, according to Frazier.

Meanwhile, Frazier reiterated again that running back Adrian Peterson is dealing with a sprained right ankle that he suffered in the second quarter against Washington. "It’ll probably be day-to-day, maybe going all the way up until Sunday as to whether or not he’s going to be playing or not," Frazier said. "We’ve all got our fingers crossed. We’ll see what he’s able to do today. May or may not be on the practice field -- we’ll see. But we are hoping that he’ll make it to Sunday."

As for defensive end Ray Edwards, who also has a right sprained ankle, has an injury that is a little worse than the Vikings initially thought. Frazier said Edwards has no ligament damage in the ankle but the sprain is on "the border of being a high ankle sprain" which is worse than a standard sprain.